The Pirates of the Yellow Sea were in action again this week and the ROK Coast Guard decided to use warning shots to disperse them:
Two Chinese fishing boats, which were seized while illegally fishing in South Korean waters in the West Sea, arrive in the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, on Nov. 2, 2016. South Korea’s Coast Guard fired warning shots with an M60 machine gun to capture the vessels earlier in the day. No Chinese fishermen were injured and nothing was damaged. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Coast Guard said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into two Chinese fishing vessels that were captured with the help of a large gun after the fishing boats illegally operated in the country’s exclusive economic zone earlier this week.
The boats were brought into the western port city of Incheon Wednesday afternoon. They were captured a day earlier in the Yellow Sea after the Coast Guard fired a M60 machine gun in warning.
The authorities said the gun was used to fight off some 30 other fishing boats nearby that interfered in the Coast Guard’s attempt to seize the two vessels, with some even threatening to collide with the patrol boats. No Chinese fishermen were injured and nothing was damaged in the process, according to the authorities.
The decision to use the weapon was made to safeguard the officers who had already boarded the Chinese vessels, and would have been cut off if other Chinese vessels succeeded in ramming the patrol boats that took part in the seizure operations, the Coast Guard said.
The Chinese boats had iron bars installed around the hulls and the gates to the steering house were closed to avoid entry, the authorities said.
The Coast Guard said it will interrogate the two captains and some 20 other crew members from the vessels to find out the details of the illegal fishing. It will also look into their relation with the other boats that got away. [Yonhap]
The Incheon Coast Guard conducts a firing drill against violent Chinese fishermen and boats catching fish illegally in the South Korean waters off Incheon, west of Seoul, on Oct. 13, 2016. Six patrol boats joined the drill, which followed the government’s recent decision to use force and firearms against violence by illegal Chinese fishermen. The stern measure came about after a Coast Guard speedboat was sunken by a Chinese boat which rear-ended it in defiance of a crackdown on illegal fishing inside the South Korean waters on Oct. 7. (Photo courtesy of Coast Guard) (Yonhap)
Patrol boats from the Korea Coast Guard and Navy surround vessels simulating foreign boats illegally fishing in South Korean waters during an exercise in the West Sea on Aug. 26, 2016. A vast number of Chinese boats cross into South Korean waters to illegally fish every year. (Yonhap)
